The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
